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26 May 2011

The Butcher Caught !

General Ratko Mladic, Bosnian Serb Army Mass murderer,
disgrace to the profession of soldiering and shame to the human race

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One of the best pieces of news I have heard in a long time is the arrest of the butcher Mladic.

I cannot say how much I hate this man and the others of his kind. My Regiment was the first UK Regiment to deploy back in 1992 under the command of Lt Col - now Tory MP Bob Stewart DSO as part of UNPROFOR1. The absolute carnage people such as Mladic and his counterparts in the Bosnian-Croats and to a lesser extent the Bosniak forces had inflicted on people because of religion and ethnicity was indescribable. What we saw in that first six months wasn't the actions of a few deranged lunatics - thousands of militia carried it out, wilfully and with glee, usually drunk and/or high on drugs.

But so that you are left in no doubts, one of the more prominent 'actions' Mladic's Bosnian-Serbs carried out (along with the siege of Sarajevo) was Srebrenica. In Srebrenica during July 1995 alone his men - with his full authority, deliberately massacred over 8000 muslim men and teenage males and a further 2000 women, girls and young male children - hunting them down in the surrounding forests and exterminating them after in some cases subjecting them to torture, disfigurement and mass rape. The full total for the three years the Srebrenica enclave was beseiged probably exceeds 20,000.

The killings at Srebrenica had been going on since the start of the conflict and that was just the 'final solution' for that particular enclave. It was a small town and a surrounding area of villages and settlements - an encircled enclave of mainly Bosnian-Muslims trapped and beseiged behind Bosnian-Serb lines. Pounded night and day by artillery and mortars slowly the surrounding villages emptied into the central town of Srebrenica swelling it with refugees. People - indeed whole families, sleeping rough in the streets as artillery burst amongst them. Body parts hanging from trees, limbs lying in the street. We manged to get access in April 1993 and were only allowed to bring aid in provided the aid lorries left full of muslims. In short we were being used by the Bosnian-Serbs to ethnically cleanse on Mladic's behalf. It was absolutely heartbreaking to see mothers stood in the street handing their babies up to people on the lorries - people they didn't even know just to get their child out of that hell.

After one run one such baby was dead in the corner of a lorry. Some of our men buried it in an unmarked grave by the side of the road. Did it's mother survive? Is she alive to this day pining for a child she has lost but thinks survived but in fact lies forgotten in an unmarked unknown grave in the middle of nowhere?

And the greatest shame of all is the gutless politicians of Europe. Bosnia could have been extinguished by the end of 1992 by force of arms. Instead the politicians of Europe dithered. And prevaricated. And dithered a bit more. For more than 3 years they dithered and tens of thousands of people died needlessly as a result. Bosnia is truly Europe's great shame post WW2. Of the three nations that see themselves as 'leaders' - the UK, Germany & France, not one of them showed any leadership at all.

When Srebrenica finally fell in July 1995 this is some of what his men - under his instruction, carried out.

Mladic, when you go to bed tonight look around your cell. That's your world for the rest of your life and hopefully your life is going to be a very very long one.

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Bosnian-Serb Paramilitaries marching young muslim males to an execution site

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There will be an awful lot of people smiling right now and rightly so.

26 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I think you forgot sn important part of the massacre of sebrenica.

It was the first time that Osama Bin Laden came into the fore to protect his muslim brothers.

The Dutch Peacekeepers, all wearing their UN blue helmets, stood around and did nothing while the men and children, mostly boys were led away, then shot.The furore about the lack of intervention by the Dutch Army led to the Dutch Government resigning.

The most important part, if you are ever in a combat zone with the Dutch, don't count on them to assist or cover you, they are shit.

Osama Bin Laded had actually been fighting for his muslim brthers since the early 1980's in Afghanistan. He was at the fore from then.

The Dutch had little choice. They were a detachment of lightly armed conscript infantry - heavily outnumbered and heavily outgunned. All they had was light arms where as the serbs had heavy artillery and main battle tanks and over ten thousand troops in the area. The Dutch managed to secure and protect the majority of the the women, girls and young boys. They were in a position where they could opt to protect just them and sacrifice the men (Sophies Choice), or end up protecting none of them and losing the lot. There was little else they could do. Mladic's massacre actually took six days - six whole days in which the UN knew exactly what was going on but would not allow any reinforcements to be deployed for fear of escalating the problem. Incidentally, I was a UN soldier at the start. We were under direct orders from UN command in Kiseljak that under no circumstances were we to engage the local forces unless it was to protect ourselves and even then only until we extracted ourselves out of the line of fire. If I was to tell you of what we had to watch but not interfere with you would be absolutely appalled that a British governemt would do that to it's soldiers. We could have stopped what was going on. We were specifically ordered not to. I subsequently went on to testify at several trials at ICTY against a total of 9 defendents.

It was because of the absolute shambles of Srebrenica that the US government adopted it's current policy - that no US soldier will ever come under UN command and that the US armed forces will never take UN orders. It is also because of Srebrenica that the US policy regarding Europe is that US forces will only be depolyed in European conflicts to achieve a solution that the US government wants. If Europe wants a different one it can sort it out itself.

In 2005, in a message to the tenth anniversary commemoration of the genocide, the Secretary-General of the United Nations noted that, "while blame lay first and foremost with those who planned and carried out the massacre and those who assisted and harboured them, great nations had failed to respond adequately, the UN itself had made serious errors of judgement and the tragedy of Srebrenica would haunt the UN's history forever."

The Blame game is always easy after the event. The question really to ask was why the Dutch was so poorly armed and such a small attachments in such an active area. Perhaps Arnie or Stallone was needed.

I'm glad he's now caught sadly his pride and his arrogance have long gone and all you have is a pathetic tyrant which is what you normally have once your power is removed.

When the UN wrung it's hands and didn't reinforce Srebrenica and confront the Bosnian Serbs head on it committed suicide.

This was a european problem that europe failed to deal with. It took an American - Bill Clinton, to say enough is enough, europe is incapable of dealing with this, we will sort it. Not long after the bombing of the Bosnian Serbs commenced, the siege of Sarajevo ended and the Serbs were forced at the point of a gun to accept a 'negotiated' settlement dictated to them by the Americans.

Of all the politicians that came out to us while we were there he was the only one that actually had a grasp of the situation on the ground - probably because he was a former Royal Marine and SBS officer. Next best was Nicholas Soames - again probably because he was a former cavalry officer. The rest - including Lord Owen, Cyrus Vance, Ambassador Bousseau, John Major etc (I met them all cos I was part of the area briefing team for when VIPs came) were hapless and seriously thought that the local warlords could be spoken to and would listen. Ashdown actually came out on patrol with us to Travnik on the front line and we came under fire. The MOD went absolutely ballistic and it was hushed up.

So, the issues facing the UN soldiers, were similar to the ones facing british forces in Ulster, the big difference, there was the UN were never invited so it became a training ground for squaddies. I find the indifference of the Dutch embarassing, and the political loonies, Ashdown in particular, and the other clowns, pointless, they should NOT have been there, interfering in another country, when we had our own dirty little war in Ulster. Who is guilty? Mladic for defending his people and Country, or the British Army for being unwanted in the Balkans. Would you enjoy it if the French Army came to Wales to protect the Welsh Muslims?

The Dutch were not indifferent - they were given a choice by the Serbs - you can have the women and kids and stay out of this or we'll kill the woman and kids as well and we'll also kill you. Mladic knew the UN would not interfere. Just remember, before he even started the massacre he had already faced down General Rose and the UN knew exactly what he was going to do as did every single UN country - they just didn't know what to do to stop him. Mladic knew the UN couldn't actually protect it's 'protected areas' - that it didn't have anywhere near enough troops andcertainly nowhere near ennough firepower.

Mladic was not defending his country - he and the Bosnian Serb regime were the aggressors in this and that is an established fact in international law. Bosnia was an independent state recognised as such by the international community with a seat in the UN. It officially requested the presence of UNPROFOR and the Bosnian Serbs also agreed to it. Mladic was attempting to dismantle Bosnia by force of arms and create an ethnically pure Serb area. Under the terms of the UN Charter (signed by all member states) the UNHCR has the right to take aid to refugees in war-torn areas and the warring factions have no right to try and stop them once their political hierarchy agree and that agreement was given before UNPROFOR deployed. Remember, that's all UNPROFOR was therefore - to escort humanitarian relief - that's all it was equipped and armed for and it's Rules Of Engagement were even stricter than those for Northern Ireland. The UN - by virtue of what it is - cannot interfere amongst the combatants, it is not allowed to. It is allowed to record what takes place and warn the relevant combatants that breaches of international law will be documented, reported and persuued through the international courts. That's why once Mladic cleared Srebrenica NATO had to formally take over from the UN wiyth full UN approval and for instance why the African Union had to take over in Rwanda. If civil war were to break out in the UK, the UNHCR along with a protection force would deliver aid here. UNPROFOR was not there to protect the muslims - it was there to protect the refugees. We escorted aid convoys and medical aid to all three sides not just muslims and documented everything we saw even down to registration plates on their vehicles, unit commanders, locations of HQs etc

The fact that you seem to think this was the west helping the muslims put down those jolly good chaps the serbs is almost text book isolationist BNP-type garbage.

Your understanding of international law and politics is somewhat thin as well. Northern Ireland was not a war. It didn't even count as an insurrection - it was civil disobedience and was a completely different scenario. The overwhelming majority of the population wished to remain British and still do. The IRA were not combatants and as such had no rights or recognition under any international law at all anywhere on earth. In short they were criminals not soldiers and were dealt with as such. The Army were only deployed in support of the Police, not in place of them and the Police and the Courts and Judicial system remained in primacy throughout. We never even declared martial law or a curfew - just the Emergency Powers Act (NI) which is actually milder than the EPA that is currently in place on the mainland.

It's not wrong KP. The terrorists in Northern Ireland were only given criminal status. They were never ever given any form of political recognition even for the ceasefire.

The funding that they collected does not de-criminalise them and in fact most of their funding was coming from mainland GB via smuggled tobacco, smuggled booze, counterfeit DVDs, drugs, prostitution and believe it or not financing major construction projects in GB cities via front companies. Other major sources of funding included exploitig EU subsidy differentials on pigs and wheat between Northern and the Republic of Ireland, black taxis, illegal drinking dens with fruit machines, again drugs and again property investments - usually whole estates on both sides of the border and rinsing agricultural diesel. In addition small businesses in NI - pubs, shops, were expected to cough-up protection money and indeed so were many large ones.

When people were caught for terrorist re;ated offences they were formally arrested, charged and afforded their rights under criminal law. In prison they were dealt with under prison regulations and handled by prison warders. The hunger strikes of the 80's were designed to gain them 'political status'. They lost, it was never granted.

As part of the peace process, for compliance by the various terrorist organistaions their prisoners were released 'on licence' - the terms of the licence being applicable for the duration of their sentence. Those that did not surrender ( the ones On The Run) are still wanted criminals. Every now and then one is caught, charged, tried, sentenced, spends a few months in prison and released on licence. The terms of the licnce are quite severe by the way and many have since been called back and re-incarcerated.

I did 2 years doing low level intelligence in East Tyrone and South Armagh. But don't tell anyone.

The freedom fighters in Ulster were classed as Political Prisoners of War, they still are, in fact most of them are now in the Stormont.

The UN and Nato are in Libya, fighting to promote " Democracy" and protecting the Oil under the desert floor.

In Bosnia, and former Yugoslavia, the massacre went unheeded, because Nato and the UN, had no mandate, why? because all they had there was cabbages and potatoes, there was no Oil, so there was no interest by Nato and the UN to do anything, there was nothing there that the West needed to protect.

Oil equals Power, the insatible greed of America, shadowed by the West to control and steal Oil from Countries under the guise of Democracy is obscene. It's a shame they had no Oil in Bosnia, that War would had been done and dusted in a week.

They only gave him up, to ease and grease the way for Serbia to join the European Union.

Third, Adams and McGuiness are now theproprry of the British Crown and willnot rock the boat. We bought them and they delivered andisarmed IRA.

NATO was not involved in Bosnia when the massacres happened. If you are going to come out with crap at least make it believable and get the sequence correct.

The UN did have a mandate - voted in by the UN and agreed in writing by the Izetbegovic, Boban and Karadzic before UNPROFOR deployed. At least learn basic history.

They have oil in Serbia.

The UN is not involved in Libya save to authorise the No Fly zone and the legal aspects of protecting civilian areas. NATO will always - since the Balkans, involve itself in all conflicts within the bordering areas of interest of it's member states. Libya is in the interest area of Italy, Spain, Cyprus and Greece.

Jesus Christ, - a 14 year old doing GCSE modern european history would wipe the floor with you. None of this is not common knowledge so how come you don't know any of it? Do you not read proper newspapers or watch proper news and current affairs programmes? Or know people involved in it?

Oh and I forgot to add, they were never classed as 'Political Prisoners Of War' maybe in the minds of the morons that followed them but in reality they were classed as exactly what they were - common criminals. Tried for criminal offences under the criminal Code in a Court of Law and sent to prison with other prisoners, gurded by prison warders and given the same rights and privilages as other prisoners. Incidentally , the Republic (which the IRA does not recognise remember), deals with them the same way. The ones still behind bars are still dealt with exactly the same way.

Did you say Oil in Bosnia, I didn't know they were a member of OPEC, Ratko's defense today " I did it to save my Country" well done Ratko, if you had any sense you would give up, Tony Blair is as bad as Ratko, the invasion of Iraq with the yanks, history will prove Ratko right and NATO, and the UN wrong, there is no OIL in Bosnia, where did you find that fact, the UN guide to invading countries?

No, I was on about the oil in Serbia. They have a common shared interest in the small Ploty(?) oil field that is also in Romania.

Mladic couldn't have been doing anything to save his country. His country was Bosnia whether he liked it or not (he was born just outside Sarajevo) and he was hell bent on breaking it up.

Incidentally, Mladic didn't enter any defence today - it's legally impossible to enter a defence until you enter a Plea. He asked for the full 30 days to consider the 11 indictments against him before entering his Plea. Then he will enter his defence after that.

I think you have missed the point, you call him a murderer because you thought that he was the enemy, you wore an uniform and kept the peace in a country where you certainly didn't belong. Ratko simply stood up and led his people, he was the one that stood up to NATO and the UN, and they didn't like it. My accountancy lecturer was a serbian, he was funny and a good teacher, but, one thing about him,was his unashamed loyalty to his Country. Ratko was the same, he was loyal leader that fought to defend his country and people from attack from within.

We didn't view any of them as friend or enemy. We viewed them as co-operative or unco-operative.

You are trying to justify genocide. You cannot. Mladic was a mass-murderer who ordered the liquidation of thousands of people on the grounds of religious belief and waged an illegal war against his own democratically elected and internationally recognised government. Even his own daughter couldn't live with what he had done.

He was not defending his country from attack within. His country was Bosnia and it was he that was the aggressor and he that was doing the attacking. Being loyal to your country (which he wasn't) does not excuse mass murder.

Again you fail to understand that UNPROFOR operated in Bosnia with the written permission of the Bosnian Serb, Croat and Muslim political leaders (including Karadzic) who also all agreed to the terms and conditions of it's operating parameters and literally signed on the dotted line. The UN mandate was approved by the Security Council with no abstentions and ratified by the full UN. The passage of command from UN to NATO was again approved by the full UN, the EU, the Council of Europe and also NATO. When the initial NATO bombing in support if UN operations was carried out in late spring of 95, it was only against weapon systems that were in use at that moment in time and were firing into civilian areas - usually mortars and artillery around Sarajevo. At that period, rump-Yugoslavia had signed the peace accord, as had the political leaders of the Bosnian factions. Mladic carried on in total disregard of what his own leader (Karadzic) was telling him and what his puppet masters in Belgrade were telling him. By the time he liquidated Srebrenica he and his rebels had been disowned politically by his own side.

There were plenty of Serbs who saw themselves as Bosnian and fought with the predominantly Bosnian Croat HVO and the predominantly Bosnian Muslim Armija.